Wei Kang had never thought that he would enjoy such treatment.
Together with the Executive Director of the Global Alliance for the Environment and heads of environmental protection departments in various countries, we discussed how to respond to the global plastic crisis in an online meeting.
The theme of the conference was Sanqing’s super enzyme.
Since the stunning debut of the super enzyme, Wei Kang has become the hottest figure in the global environmental field.
The human planet is in the midst of a plastic waste disaster, and no one is immune.
Every country will face the problem of how to deal with plastic waste.
Therefore, super enzymes that can degrade plastic waste have become a life-saving straw for them.
Directly contributed to the convening of this global environmental protection conference.
At nine o'clock in the morning, Wei Kang logged into the computer in the office and entered the online conference room.
He was welcomed as never before.
The faces that appear on the screen are all big names who have appeared on the news in various countries.
They all showed kind smiles and greeted him warmly.
"Dear Mr. Wei, good morning, it's an honor to meet you."
"Mr. Wei, have you eaten? I am Gore from the Environmental Protection Agency of the Football League."
"Mr. Wei, I am Steve from Eagle Country. I am very happy to attend this meeting."
These warm greetings and eager gazes made Wei Kang deeply aware.
As Sanqing's strength increased, he was inevitably involved in the handling of global affairs.
At this moment, he is no longer an ordinary entrepreneur, but has the ability to truly change the world.
With great ability comes great responsibility.
He finally realized the meaning of this sentence.
Wei Kang smiled slightly: "I'm glad to see you all. Thank you for participating in this meeting."
"I know that everyone is very anxious to obtain the authorization of super enzyme as soon as possible to deal with the plastic waste problem in their country as soon as possible."
"However, I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint everyone. In the current recycled plastics industry, Chinese companies have assumed the responsibility of processing and recycling waste plastics, and they also have certain benefits. I think it's very reasonable and I have no intention of changing this status quo."
Steve, the environmental protection director of Eagle Country, was the first to speak impatiently.
"Dear Mr. Wei, environmental protection is everyone's responsibility. Shipping garbage overseas will not completely solve our domestic plastic pollution problem. Please consider it again for the people of Eagle Country."
Wei Kang smiled faintly and declined his request: "I think with the economic strength of Eagle Country, we can use more degradable plastics, and we can even call on the people to use less plastics as much as possible. In this way, we will definitely be able to greatly reduce the use of plastics. utilization rate, thereby achieving the purpose of protecting the environment.”
A look of disappointment flashed across Steve's face and he said no more. He also knew that when the other party had such technology, which was a rare commodity, they would definitely not license it to other countries so quickly.
If other countries could recycle their own plastic waste, they would certainly not pay to send it overseas for processing.
There is no way to talk about huge profits in China's recycled plastics industry.
The smiles on the faces of environmental protection officials from other countries also disappeared instantly, and they fell into silence one by one.
Yes, plastic recycling used to be unprofitable and polluted the environment, so they naturally didn’t want to deal with it.
But now that this business is starting to make money, and it’s huge profits, everyone naturally starts to get greedy.
It's a pity that Sanqing has no intention of licensing this technology out. It seems that this time it was in vain.
However, some people still refused to give up and spoke shamelessly again, making the same request again and again.
Wei Kang sneered in his heart and was about to speak to completely cut off these people's thoughts.
Suddenly, Gore from the Global Environment Agency interrupted everyone's conversation with a serious look.
"Gentlemen, I am very disappointed in you."
"Every one of you is an expert in environmental protection, and you are responsible for protecting the earth's environment, but you only focus on the one-third of an acre of your own home."
"Obviously there is a perfect solution. As the inventor, Mr. Wei should also enjoy the profits he deserves."
"But you are still wasting your time on such unnecessary requests, and you are constantly wasting everyone's time."
"Do you know? While you are talking this nonsense, our ocean is dying."
"The plastic waste produced by humans is the killer of the ocean and all marine life."
After saying these words, he looked at Wei Kang apologetically: "Mr. Wei, I didn't mean to offend."
Wei Kang smiled and waved his hand: "I don't mind, please continue talking. In fact, I am more interested in what you are talking about."
Gore nodded and said in a deep voice.
"Mr. Wei, I know that with the super enzyme, plastic waste on land is no longer a problem. On behalf of the Football League, I would like to express my deep gratitude to you."
"However, plastic pollution is not only serious on land, but also in the ocean. It is even worse than on land."
“The world’s 192 coastal countries input tens of millions of tons of plastic waste into the ocean every year. Over the past few decades, it has reached an alarming level. If we do not deal with this problem, it is no exaggeration to say that everyone will , every country will face disaster."
Having said this, he began to share relevant information and showed shocking photos and videos to the attendees.
“Look at this photo, taken near the island of Sumbawa in Java, where the ocean is heavily polluted with plastic.”
"In the deep blue water, a seahorse larvae is wrapped around a pink plastic cotton swab. Before plastic appeared in the ocean, seahorses usually wrapped themselves around strands of seaweed."
"Would you like to see such a photo? Anyway, I would rather it not exist."
The photos he continued to show showed countless colorful plastic bottles, plastic toys, and plastic bags floating in the seawater, appearing on the bodies of marine animals.
There is a turtle wrapped in a plastic bag. It bites open the bag to expose its head and limbs, and it is swimming in the sea. In the trench beneath it, there is a large piece of discarded plastic bottles.
There are also plastic films suspended in the seawater, covered with algae, and small fish are eating them one by one, swallowing the algae and plastic debris together.
There are also thousands of albatross dead on the beach. Their corpses have rotted. Under the exposed white ribs, you can see a lot of plastic garbage in their stomachs. It is the swallowed garbage that killed them.
In one video, the food brought back from the ocean by a mother seabird turned out to be a piece of plastic picked up and fed directly to the baby seabirds. The hungry baby seabirds couldn't wait to take a bite, but they couldn't. Vomited it out again.
So the mother seabird pecked the plastic pieces into pieces with her beak, and continued to feed the little seabirds piece by piece.
Wei Kang couldn't help but fall silent after seeing this scene.
Finally, a photo freezes on the screen. An endless stretch of plastic garbage soaks in the deep blue seawater with no end in sight. It’s like a pot of plastic porridge.
Gore said sadly: "This is the huge marine garbage dump hidden in the center of the Pacific subtropical air flow, which is also the legendary 'Eighth Continent'."
"Yes, the garbage dumped by humans into the ocean slowly gathered together under the influence of ocean currents and turned into a new continent. What an irony."
“The Eighth Continent is made up of 4 million tons of plastic waste, covering an area of 1.4 million square kilometers, equivalent to the country of Gaul and the size of four cherry blossom countries, and contains more than 50% of all plastic floating in the high seas.”
"Gentlemen, forget about the damn plastic waste in your country, look here, this is where you need to solve the problem."
Gore roared at the top of his lungs, and the expression on his face became ferocious.
"If plastic waste pollution cannot be stopped, the entire ocean will become a new floating world, filled with huge amounts of garbage, and sooner or later it will become a wall, trapping us all inside."
The faces of the participants became serious, and they all stared at the garbage continent in the photo, with worries in their eyes.
Wei Kang couldn't help but feel horrified. Although he knew that plastic pollution was serious, he didn't expect it to be so serious.
In the past, the reports he saw were mainly about domestic environmental issues. He really didn’t know much about global ocean plastic pollution.
He immediately said, "Mr. Gore, I have to admit that what you showed successfully moved me."
"Sanqing is willing to contribute to the elimination of marine debris, so be it, I have changed my mind."
He pondered for a moment and said slowly: "If companies from various countries are willing to salvage plastic waste in the ocean and recycle it, then I am willing to sell super enzymes to them."
"As long as it is marine plastic waste, super enzymes can be used to recycle it, thereby earning a certain amount of profit and supporting them in continuing this environmental protection cause."
"Of course, Sanqing will also carry out a certain degree of supervision to ensure that marine garbage is recycled, not garbage on land."
"Driven by profit, there should be companies willing to salvage marine debris to make profits while also protecting the marine environment and making it better."
"I estimate that within the next few years, the garbage continent will completely disappear from the Pacific Ocean. In the future, humans will no longer be willing to discard plastics at will, but will recycle them for profit."
"What do you think?"
After saying these words, Wei Kang looked at the environmental protection officials from various countries.
Gore immediately clapped his hands with excitement and praised Wei Kang loudly.
"God, Mr. Wei, you are indeed a great entrepreneur. On behalf of the ocean and the people around the world, I would like to thank you again."
He stood up directly in front of the camera and bowed deeply.
The eyes of other participants instantly shone, unable to conceal the excitement on their faces, they all nodded in agreement.
Wei Kang’s meaning is very clear. From now on, all plastic waste on the mainland will be sent to the East for recycling.
But the garbage in the ocean is left to each country to recycle. He is willing to sell super enzymes and let them profit from it in order to solve the problem of ocean plastic pollution as soon as possible.
As for how much oil and water each country can get from it, it depends on them. After all, salvaging marine garbage is also a technical job.
When the time comes, everyone will contribute their money, contribute their efforts, and each will show their talents, and they will be able to earn as much as they can.
These discarded plastics are no longer garbage, but free plastic raw materials that can be recycled.
With the technology of these rich countries and these free plastic raw materials, if processed, they can be sold at a high price of tens of thousands per ton at any time.
Thinking of this, representatives from various countries began to breathe heavily.
After the meeting, the world began to take action.
A battle against ocean plastic has begun vigorously.
****
On the endless Pacific Ocean, a ship towing a screen is gliding in the water. It corrects its direction and changes speed from time to time, quickly and effectively collecting plastic garbage in the seawater.
A 4-meter-deep screen collects plastic waste from the ocean into a net bag. Once the net bag is filled, it is sealed and separated from the system. It is then taken aboard and dumped on board.
This is a device invented by the non-profit organization The Ocean Cleanup to continuously collect plastic waste from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
The device resembles an artificial floating shoreline, extending its giant arms and folding up to capture plastic and then dump the waste into a woven funnel-shaped net.
Two boats slowly tow it across the water, and ocean currents automatically push the floating trash toward giant fishing nets that collect large amounts of trash.
With this equipment, the Ocean Cleanup has successfully pulled out 10 tons of garbage from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, proving that the garbage patch can eventually be cleaned up.
Lester, 27, is the founder of this organization, and his goal is to remove 90% of ocean plastic waste by 2040.
Since its establishment three years ago, the company has continued to develop and improve equipment for collecting ocean plastics, and finally has achieved results.
The young Lester had a weathered face due to years of drifting at sea. He stood on the boat, wearing a yellow-green life jacket, staring intently at the garbage collection equipment.
He is testing the operation of the equipment, and so far, everything seems to be going well.
However, to achieve his grand goal of cleaning the entire world's oceans, it may not be enough.
He needs at least hundreds of such equipment.
Since "The Ocean Cleanup" is a non-profit organization and can only rely on donations for research and development, its power is also limited. At present, the company has only raised millions of dollars in funds, and after three years, it has almost been spent.
Now outside scientists are very unfavorable to his organization and are starting to question whether he can continue to raise funds to carry out this environmental protection cause.
After all, salvaging plastic waste does not make any money, so it is a loss-making business. It may be difficult to complete it by relying solely on charity donations.
Thinking of this, Lester couldn't help but frown.
Although he has tried his best, increased revenue and reduced expenditure, and used all means, the funding gap is still so big.
Once the salvaged trash is brought ashore, the plastic is recycled.
"The Ocean Cleanup" has reached cooperation with some consumer brands to make some recycled plastic into items such as sunglasses worth $200, sell them for profit, and use the proceeds for cleanup work.
But these benefits are only a drop in the bucket compared to the high R&D and operating costs.
In addition to his work, Lester also has a distressing job, which is to collect donations to raise funds for the organization.
Suddenly, the phone in his pocket rang.
Lester took a look and saw that it was his assistant Jenny, so he answered the phone.
"Lester, great news, someone wants to invest in you!"
Jenny's excited shouts exploded in his ears.
Lester was immediately delighted: "Great, which environmental fund is it and how much does he want to invest? One million or two million?"
"It's BASF! They want to invest 50 million!" Jenny screamed with excitement.
"What?" Lester's hand shook and his phone fell on the deck.
"Come back and sign the contract! By the way, in addition to BASF, Dow Chemical is also here!"
Lester was stunned and looked at the mobile phone on the deck as if he was in a dream.
(End of chapter)
